


The Soul Within

by Aeronomatron



Category: Original Work
Genre: Beauty and the Beast Elements, M/M, Multi, attempts to give a house sized winged lizard a bath, but Cal is a dragon, hanako's a sarcastic bitch, who was the witch that started this entire mess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-16
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2020-03-06 12:17:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18850915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aeronomatron/pseuds/Aeronomatron
Summary: There’s an old castle on the side of the mountain that’s said to be the lair of a dragon. No one that climbs the mountain ever comes back, but Suki’s never been afraid of myths.He’s got bigger things to worry about, like the men chasing him through the forest. So he does the only thing a reasonable person would do: climb the mountain and hide in the castle.Turns out, the dragon is real, and Suki’s starting to wonder if it’s weirder that he’s flirting with a fire-breathing, winged lizard, or that the lizard flirting back.





	1. Cal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey y'all! if y'all have read my previous works, y'all will know Kirito was originally shipped with Suki.
> 
> The owner of this character has altered Kirito drastically - changing Ki's name to Cal, and making Ki Cal's younger brother. which means these guys are basically different characters.
> 
> Just substitute in Cal for Kirito for this work if you know the older ones. They are basically the same character except name changes and very slight physical alterations!

Suki scrambles up the steep rock ledge, panting. The man stops to catch his breath, peering below him at the men hurling weapons in his general direction and yelling angrily. He’s high up enough, though, that the drop is starting to look dizzying and he can’t hear his pursuers very well.

Fortunately, the mob decides not to try and follow him, and he can see the flames of their torches as they gather at the base of the mountain. He hears a few obscenities tossed his way before they turn and disperse into the forest.

“Fuck them,” Suki mutters to himself, annoyed. He won’t last long out here up on the mountain - he hadn’t thought to bring any supplies or extra clothing. And he can’t return to the village - the mob will be waiting.

There’s a reason the group didn’t follow him up the mountain, though, and the answer to that question looms over him. Tall, dark towers cut up into the sky, blocking the moonlight and casting jagged shadows across the cliff face. An imposing gate flanked by two looming statues, a foreboding cloaked man and a warrior with a spiked mace and shield, give the place a very unwelcome feeling. The castle is huge, its points seeming to slice into the very air.

It’s not the castle that’s the frightening thing, though. It’s what’s said to be living _in_ the castle.

Dragons are dangerous creatures. They’re five or six times as big as a tavern, or so Suki’s told. They’re covered in hard scales that are almost impossible to be pierced by anything known to man, claws harder than diamonds and different elemental powers, though the most common is fire hotter than the magma in a volcano. They’re also said to hoard things.

Suki’s also heard that if one’s angered, it’ll fight like a particularly nasty tornado complete with a side of volcanic eruption, blizzard, tsunami or earthquake depending on the type of dragon.

All those reasons provide a good explanation for why the mob chasing Suki turned tail and fled from the mountain.

Suki’s never been afraid of dragons, or anything supernatural. He keeps climbing, stone crumbling under his fingers and feet. As he scrambles up another ledge, he takes a good look at the statues guarding the intricate metalwork of the gate.

Whoever made them must have been a master artist - they were so lifelike Suki swore if he touched the cloak of the man on the right, it would ripple like real cloth under his fingers.

He tentatively approaches the castle along the ruined stone path, grass and overgrown vegetation crunching under his shoes as he walks. It’s deathly silent up here, the only sound being the wind whistling in his ears. There aren’t any birds, or any signs of life. The windows of the castle are dark and silent.

Suki plants a foot on the gate, testing it. The metal doesn’t even creak as he leans his weight on the bar, and he quickly clambers up and hops over the gate, landing lightly on the other side. Somehow, it feels even quieter in the courtyard. Even the wind’s howling seems muted, like Suki had just entered a different realm.

The man wanders along the main path, a smooth stone pathway in seemingly pristine condition, contrasting the broken trail outside the gate. The hedges and trees are neatly pruned, and flower buds hang over planters and peek out of plots, each seemingly about to bloom yet is unable to.

It’s not like Suki has anywhere else to go, so he strides up to the enormous double doors and shoves with all his strength. Surprisingly, the doors swing open, and Suki just stands at the doorway, taking in the main entrance.

The floor is polished marble, and the hall is mostly devoid of furniture save a couple statues placed in the corners of the hall and two large braziers that burn with orange flames. They’re of various people, mostly male and differing greatly in terms of physical features. They must have been carved by the same artist as the statues outside, Suki thinks, as they’re just as lifelike. Each outstretched hand, bent limb, and sweep of clothing seems to be able to move at a touch.

He pushes the door shut and jumps when something winds around his legs. Suki gives the thing a kick before he can process what it is, and a yowl of anger erupts from the cat he’d just kicked.

The feline skids a couple feet before leaping back up, fur bristling. It hisses at him indignantly, then sits down and starts grooming its ebony fur.

Suki gives it an annoyed glance before walking towards the large staircase. The cat, however, races in front of him, planting itself in his way.

“What are you doing here, stranger?” a voice calls, and Suki whirls around, searching for the speaker. When he can’t find anyone, he turns back to the cat. Surely it isn’t the animal that’s speaking…?

“Hello? Are you mute?” The cat fixes him with a yellow-eyed glare, and Suki jumps _again_.

“You’re talking,” he says, and the cat nods like he just said something mundane like “people breathe air” or “grass is green”.

“What-” Suki groans, smacking his forehead a couple times with his palm. “Nope. No, this is a hallucination, cats just don’t talk, alright? I’m gonna wake up and you’re just gonna be a normal cat. Give me a second to wake myself up.”

When he pinches himself three times and looks up, the cat seems unimpressed. “Seriously, human, you’ve got to start seeing and believing.” Its voice seems feminine, so Suki decides to call it by female pronouns.

“So… you’re a talking cat. Geez, this is even weirder than a dragon.” Suki sighs.

The cat swishes her tail. “There’s a dragon, alright. He’s upstairs, though, and if you interrupt his sleep, you’re gonna-”

“BYREN!” a voice roars from somewhere above. Suki immediately feels a shiver run down his spine - the voice is somehow inhuman, undertones echoing and mingling with the original voice. It’s also, for lack of a better word, _loud_.

The castle seems to shake as whatever it is starts walking, or stomping. Suki scrambles backwards as he spots a glimmer of crimson scales, gleaming like polished rubies.

The dragon’s head appears at the top of the stairway, high and arching. Regal, like a king. Its yellow eyes land on him, a couple shades darker than the cat’s bright golden ones. A forked tongue slips out from between the dragon’s jaws as it scrutinizes him.

“Byren, who is this?” a deep male voice calls. The dragon stalks down the stairs, a lot smaller than Suki had imagined. It’s about two times the size of a large horse, wings folded against its body. The dragon’s slender body is covered in glittering scales, red and gold flashing in the dim light of the braziers burning in the entrance. Its paws are tipped with razor-sharp black talons, and its tail is a dark gold at the base, fading to a light tan at the tip.

The cat, apparently called Byren, scampers towards the dragon, blocking its path despite it seeming futile due to how small she is. Even more surprising, though, is that the dragon actually _stops_.

“He’s not a hunter,” she says to the towering reptile. “While he has the scent of many on him, he doesn’t carry any weapons.”

The dragon bares its teeth. “What do you want, human?”

Suki was solely concentrating on not letting his fear show through, and he has to struggle to answer. He does commend himself on how steady his voice is when he replies, “I was running from a mob, and thought that I could take refuge here for a bit.”

“Do I look like someone that can help you with that?” The dragon weaves around Byren, who lopes along it. It stops right in front of Suki, dangerous teeth inches from his face.

“Yes.”

Yellow eyes narrow, the dragon’s pupils slitting. “I will allow you to stay a single day. Then, if you remain, I’ll kill you.” It turns, claws clicking against the marble, and climbs back up the stairs, an imperious swish of its tail a clear dismissal.

Byren rubs her head against Suki’s legs. “He won’t kill you, I promise. Cal’s never hurt anyone, and I’ve been with him for a while - that’s just him trying to scare you. He will chase you out, though, and you’d better think of a good reason for him not to kick you out.”

Suki notes it down. “Thanks, uh, Byren. Though, I don’t suppose you’d know where I can sleep…?”

The cat nods and pads up the stairs, Suki following behind her. Her steps are sure as she wanders the confusing halls, but Suki gets lost after the first few turns. His head is still spinning when she butts against a door.

“Just yell for me if you need anything, kay? And please don’t get freaked out by anything weird you see.” The cat blinks up at him, then slips down the hall, easily blending into the shadows of the hallway.

Suki sighs, turning the handle of the door. The room inside is comfortably furnished, with a bed with slightly dusty silken sheets, a large wardrobe and a fluffy fur rug spread over the floor. There’s even a brazier in the corner of the room, though unlit.

It’s much better than his accomodations back in the village. Suki decides to take it as a blessing that the dragon didn’t just outright reject him, and settles for the night.

* * *

Suki wakes to fire on the brazier.

No, the fire isn’t burning in it. The fire is, rather, taking a humanoid form crouched on the brazier, and somehow miraculously not burning the rug.

Suki tries not to panic. There’s a _fire monster_ in his _room_.

“What the fuck,” Suki deadpans. The dragon was already stressful enough, not to mention the talking cat. Now there’s a fire demon, too.

Then it starts talking. Nope, Suki’s not dealing with this so early in the morning. He throws himself back down on the bed and pulls the covers over his head, ignoring the monster’s indignant protests.

Suki gets about two seconds of uninterrupted sleep before the covers are yanked back by the fire monster.

“It’s rude to not say hello,” it says in a youthful male voice. If it wasn’t a fire monster, Suki would have pegged it as a seventeen year old young man.

“Hello,” Suki growls, ripping the covers from the monster’s hand and sliding off the bed.

The monster continues to follow him despite his best efforts to shake it, and then he realizes far too late he’s hopelessly lost in the maze of corridors in the castle.

“Need some help with navigation?” the annoying fire demon behind him asks. “I’m Akemi, by the way.”

Suki considers his pride, but his growling stomach suggests that he take the help offered, and fast. He reluctantly grounds out, “Yes. How do you get to the, uh, wherever you eat?”

“This way.” The monster takes the lead, each step leaving a faintly glowing footprint that last a couple seconds before fizzling out.

And that’s how Suki arrives at the dining hall, taken up by a huge banquet table, but there is only one plate and a couple dishes set out. Akemi watches him as he takes a seat at the table, picking a couple pastries off a plate.

The dragon never appears throughout breakfast, and Byren enters briefly to remind Akemi of something.

As Suki finishes, the plates disappear, but after a dragon, a talking cat and a fire monster, Suki feels like he’s no longer surprised by anything. He stands up and Akemi advises him to try avoiding the dragon, whose name is apparently Cal.

Suki takes the advice, instead wandering around the main floor. He finds a huge library that he spends a couple hours reading in, then gets bored and decides to explore.

He climbs up the stairs to the first floor and pokes around for a bit until he finds something he definitely isn’t expecting.

At the end of a hall is a set of metal doors, engraved with pictures of dragons winding up the sides and around a round symbol in the middle. Suki pushes these open to discover that the room inside is… cold.

Unlike the rest of the warm castle, this room is covered in ice. In the center of the huge room is a large, low pedestal with a statue on it.

The statue is of a young boy, perhaps fifteen or sixteen. He’s in a strange position, one hand reaching up towards the ceiling while the other is close to his chest. The boy seems to be leaning back from some invisible threat.

Clutched tightly in his stone hand is a blue crystal ball. It gleams in the natural light streaming in through the windows high above the round room.

Suki slips and slides his way across the room to reach the boy. Up close, he can see that the details on this statue are incredible - even the eyelashes have been carved out, fine stone bits so delicate they seemed to be prone to breaking at the slightest breeze in the room. The boy’s face is twisted in an eternal scream, mouth wide open and eyes squeezed shut.

“That’s my brother,” says the dragon from behind him, and Suki whirls, almost slipping on the frozen ground. He flails around before he regains his balance.

“You- what-” Suki’s words fade away and he stares at Cal in bewilderment. How does a dragon have a human for a brother?

Cal’s scaly brows furrow. “He was cursed because of me. I could stand being a dragon, but no. That wasn’t enough punishment. Kirito became what you see here, and I haven’t found out how to bring him back.”

Suki can see the anguish in those yellow eyes. “You-he was cursed?” is the only thing he can stutter out.

“You weren’t supposed to see this,” the dragon rumbles, but his voice is just… melancholy. There’s no anger, just sadness.

Suki peers at the base. There’s something carved into the stone pedestal - he squints and tries to read it.

The words are faded, but Suki can make out most of the message: _Shed your hate and you will shed your scales, and if one will love you just as you loved your kin, you will find him returned to you._

“You’ve got quite a dilemma on your hands, or claws really,” Suki says. “If you let me stay, I’ll help you get your brother back.”

Cal perks up. “Really?” His head raises higher.

“Of course.” There’s no way Suki sleeps in someone’s castle for free and then doesn’t somehow pay them back.

Well, that and he wants to stay on the three-story tall winged fire lizard’s good side.

The dragon closes the distance between them, smoke drifting from between his jaws. “You’re a strange person, offering to help a dragon. What’s your name?”

“Akatsuki, but you can call me Suki.”

“Suki…” His name in Cal’s rasp seemed a little rougher, less silky. Suki had no idea words could even have textures.

“Anyway, Cal, did you read the inscription at the bottom of the pedestal?” The dragon draws back in surprise.

“What inscription?” The enormous reptile leans down, scanning the pedestal. “Oh… that wasn’t there before.”

They’re silent while Cal reads it out. Then the dragon breaks the silence by exclaiming, “I gotta love someone to get my brother to come back? And they have to love me back?” His scaled head droops.

“Why, what’s the matter? It can’t be too hard, right?”

Cal groans. “No one’s gonna want to love a dragon. They’re all scary and huge and everything…”

“Who knows, maybe I’m into house-sized winged lizards,” Suki jokes.

Cal’s yellow eyes narrow. “Don’t give me false hope, Suki.” Despite the rough tone, there’s no malice in his words.

The dragon stalks off, leaving Suki to gaze at the statue by himself.


	2. Suki

“Can you read?” Suki asks Cal as he trails behind the dragon, flipping through one of the books from the library.

“Can’t,” answers Cal, not looking back. “I keep accidentally setting them on fire or ripping the pages with my claws.”

Suki is silent for a moment.

“I can read to you,” he starts tentatively. Cal whips his head around, glaring murderously at Suki.

“I’m not a child in need of reading to,” he snaps defensively, but Suki holds up his hands in a placating gesture.

“I mean, I don’t have to read you children’s stories. Just… it’s inconvenient for you to read, right? I’m trying to help.”

Cal does consider this for a moment. “...alright,” he mutters, refocusing on the hall in front of him. Suki hides a smile at his victory.

* * *

Suki stops by one of the statues. “These are so lifelike… are they people, too?”

“Yeah,” Cal replies. “The two by the gate are called Eze and Duncan, and this one… he was a guy called Nico.”

Suki examines the statue’s face, set in an expression that sends mixed signals - Nico seems confused and scared and angered all at once.

“Most of the statues were people. Byren and Akemi are also former humans - they’re the only ones that were allowed to have a living, breathing form. And then there’s me.”

Cal arches his neck, gently blowing out silver smoke. “They were all good friends that stuck by me even after I was cursed. Eventually, though, they became like this.”

Suki nods slowly. “So everyone you knew just… disappeared, huh.”

He surprises himself by taking Cal’s head into his hands, stroking the smooth scales along the dragon’s snout. Cal seems shocked, but relaxes in a moment.

“Is the castle cursed, too?” Suki asks, rubbing his palm along the crests on Cal’s forehead.

“Oh, are you concerned about becoming a statue? I don’t believe so?” Cal rumbles and the somewhat softer scale plates along his neck heat up to a pleasant warmth.

“That’s a relief, to know I don’t have a time limit.” Suki reaches up and grabs one of Cal’s longer horns, stroking the smooth plates.

The reptile purrs, nuzzling against Suki’s chest. “All those that came ran from me in fright, but you didn’t. Why?”

Suki shrugs. “I wasn’t gonna leave just because some winged lizard told me to.”

Cal huffs. “I’m probably getting soft.”

They’re silent for a while. Finally, Cal speaks again.

“Won’t your family be missing you? And don’t guys your age have a pretty girl to get back to?”

Suki curls his lip. “My parents want me to marry a snotty woman that would spend all my life savings on expensive, frilly dresses in an instant. Besides, most of my village hate me now.”

The large yellow eye blinks at him. “Why?”

“They seem to think I’m the one that murdered my to-be wife’s sister. I found her, lying dead in the woods, with her wounds clearly being some wild animal’s claw marks, but when a townsperson came to me, he immediately thought I was the one who killed her and I’ve been on the run ever since.”

Cal frowns as best as a dragon can. “Sounds terrible.”

Suki crosses his arms. “It is, but hey. At least you aren’t trying to put me on trial for murder.”

The dragon pulls out of his grasp, snorting. "I have nothing to do with that."

* * *

Curiously, Suki tails Cal as he makes his way towards the far east side of the castle, past the enormous library.

Cal pushes open a large door with a paw, slipping inside. Suki follows him and emerges into a large room filled with drained pools. The floor is cold under his bare feet, somewhat rough as it isn’t the same polished marble as the other areas in the castle.

As Suki takes in what he coins the “bathhouse”, Cal sits down besides a large, rectangular pool, big enough for him to fit in, wings and all.

“These are the royal baths. All the nobles and people at the castle would come here to take a good soak whenever they needed to relax. It’s been unused for a while, and I think you can see why.”

Cal paws at one of the small levers along the wall, but only succeeds in scratching it. “...I haven’t been able to turn it on,” he finally admits.

Suki hides his smile behind a hand as he strides over.

“Is this your way of saying ‘I want to see you naked’, Cal?” Suki teases. If dragons could blush, Cal probably was doing it.

“N-no!” Cal growls, hiding his head under his paws. “I just wanted to have someone help me bathe, that’s all.”

“Oh, so ‘Please see me in my full glory,’ huh?”

“Shut up!”

“I’ve only been here a week, Cal. You’re taking a pretty big leap of faith.”

“I said shut up!” Smoke curls out of Cal’s nose.

Suki pats the warm scales. “Alright. Hey, you know what? Meet me here in two hours, I’ll help you out.”

Cal doesn’t say anything, but Suki can feel his gratitude. Or maybe it’s just the heat wafting off his scales from his embarrassment.

* * *

Suki scrubs at the scales with a rough brush, clearing away dust and grime collected over what he guesses is more than a few years judging from the layers of dust in his room.

The dragon lets out a contented rumble and shifts around, but one of his wings sweeps forward, bringing water with it and Suki is soaked in a second.

“Hey!” he splutters, wiping droplets out of his face. “I’m trying to clean you up!”

“Sorry,” Cal replies, not sounding very apologetic.

A flick of his tail sends more water cascading over Suki, causing his only somewhat wet shirt to become absolutely drenched, cling to his torso even more. Suki just sighs.

Fortunately, he had anticipated this and he sheds the wet shirt, throwing it off to the side. Suki debates his breeches as well and finally lets them fall around his ankles, stepping forward.

He slips into the water, straightening up when his feet hit the shelf that protrudes from the side of the pool.

Suki suddenly becomes aware that the water is getting warmer. He squints at Cal, who’s looking away pointedly. Red light is glowing between the scales of his chest, lines spidering up his neck.

“What,” Suki deadpans.

“You- I- Suki, no-” Cal stutters, his words blending together into a high-pitched whine.

“Mhm?”

“Nevermind,” the dragon squeaks, hurriedly floundering around and dousing Suki with another wave.

If someone had told Suki he’d make a dragon flustered, he wouldn’t have believed it, but here he was.

Suki grabs the brush and starts on Cal’s forepaw, maneuvering himself around the sharp talons. He works his way up the glimmering scales on the foreleg to Cal’s shoulder, splashing clean water over it to rinse the soap bubbles off.

Cal shifts around so Suki can reach his back, flicking the tips of his wings and unfurling them to their full length. They take up about half the bathhouse fully outstretched.

The man starts to lather soap over the glittering golden spines running the length of Cal’s back, running his hands over their smooth, dulled points. He works at a slightly lifted scale and realizes, fascinated, that it’s a little loose. Suki gently worries the scale, prying at the edges until the scale lifts up to reveal another one underneath.

The scale he’d just picked off is a beautiful crimson, the color starting off dark red and gradually becoming lighter around the edges. Gold flecks cover the palm-sized scale, making it shimmer in the light of the bathhouse.

“Thanks,” Cal mumbles.

“What for?”

“For relieving my itch. That bothered me for a good three days.”

“Oh. Well, you’re welcome.”

Cal moves a little more, and Suki has to avoid being crushed between the pool and Cal’s tail. Instead, he sets the scale on the floor, ducks under the tail and swims out to the dragon, clambering up on his back to keep cleaning.

As Suki scrubs at Cal’s neck, he realizes the glow has mostly died down, and the water has cooled considerably. He’s leaning over to reach the plates along Cal’s snout, rubbing the brush over the hard bump over the nose when he realizes the dragon is starting to tip his head backwards.

Red is creeping back up his neck, and Suki scrambles to leap off of Cal’s quickly heating scales before he’s burned. He instinctively ducks under the water as Cal rears back and then lets out the biggest, most destructive sneeze Suki has ever seen.

Flames explode from the reptile’s mouth as Cal lets out a sound that makes the room seem to shake. Cal’s head swings around, and steam hisses as the flames meet water and fill the air with thick white vapor.

Suki sees Cal wince. The bathhouse’s walls had amplified the sound’s echoes and while being underwater seemed to keep Suki from becoming deaf permanently, Cal didn’t seem to share the same luck.

“Cal, what the fuck!” the man yells at Cal as he surfaces, spitting out water.

“Sorry!” the dragon apologizes. “It’s been a while since I’ve had one of those, so I totally forgot!”

Cal snuffles and heaves himself out of the pool, rolling over on to his back. Then he kind of just… flops a bit like a dead fish. Suki climbs out as well, frowning as the dragon lets out a rumbling complaint.

“Am I clean?”

Suki holds back a snort. “Mhm.”

Cal opens his jaws and a gush of orange flame rolls over his scales, instantly drying them. “...Thanks, Suki.”

“Glad I could help.”

As Suki heads for the wall to grab a towel, Cal suddenly leans over and licks a long stripe up Suki’s back, making him jump.

“Hey! What was that for?!” Suki doesn’t turn around, but he does feel a shiver run through him, and something _else_ happen. Really, it’s been happening but rather slowly, but the lick just… speeds it up a bit.

“Um, nothing,” Cal mutters, and Suki hears his scales scrape along the ground as he shifts.

“It was not nothing,” the violet-eyed man says, snatching up a towel and quickly wrapping it around his waist to preserve modesty, and hide the… new development.

“You just smelled sort of funny, that’s all,” Cal says, laying his head on his front paws. “I’ve discovered tasting something helps with identifying scents.”

Suki frowns and hurriedly picks up his wet clothing to escape as fast as possible, turning to hide the flush starting to crawl up his cheeks. But Cal’s fast to pick up the scent.

“Oh god,” Cal says after a second, voice muffled by his paws. “I really had that effect on you?” He takes another sniff of the air.

Suki nails Cal on the nose with a hard soap. It doesn’t hurt Cal much, but he supposes it gets the message across. The man then retreats to his room to contemplate the mysteries of the universe.

* * *

Two days after what Suki dubs the “sneeze incident”, he runs into Cal rolling around in the courtyard.

“Cal… what the fuck?”

The dragon peers at him with yellow eyes. “What?”

“What are you doing on the ground,” Suki deadpans.

“Itch,” he grunts in reply.

Suki sighs.

“Alright, where is it now?”

Cal rolls on to his belly. “All along my spines. I think I’m molting again.”

“Molting…?”

The dragon yawns. “It’s when I shed all my old scales and grow new ones. Scales aren’t that flexible, especially dragon ones. They’re hard and offer a ton of protection but I do keep growing them, and I need room. It happens every five or six years.”

“Can I keep the scales you shed?”

“Sure. It’s not like I have any use for the old scales, anyway.”

Suki goes back inside and finds a sharp knife from the kitchen. Along the way, Byren finds him and asks him what he’s doing walking around with a knife with more than a little suspicion, and Suki explains the incident.

The cat and human arrive back at the courtyard, where Cal seems to be struggling to keep himself from rolling around on the ground again.

“Hold still,” Suki orders, and he wedges the blade of the knife under one of the raised scales. Cal yelps indignantly when he yanks at the scale, but it flies loose and reveals a softer-looking scale underneath, a deeper crimson than the one covering it.

Suki works at Cal’s back for a few hours before the sun starts setting, and he sets the knife down to a growing pile of glittering red and gold.

Cal stands and shakes out himself like a dog. A couple more scales dislodge from his back and clatter against the stone pathway. One hits Byren on the head and she yowls, giving the dragon a murderous glare.

Cal doesn’t seem to notice. Instead, he sighs and his tail tip twitches.

“Thanks, Suki. It’s a lot harder to molt when you only have a cat and a fire monster for company.”

“I mean, I get a ton of cool scales. It’s a good deal.”

Cal nuzzled up against him, brushing his cold cheek against Suki’s side. “I like having you around, Suki. You know that?”

“What, so I can take care of your needs, like bathing?”

Yellow eyes narrow in amusement. “If you keep smart-mouthing me, I might just have to go back to my scary persona I put on the first day.”

“Yeah, terrifying,” Suki replies with a straight face.

Cal sweeps his tail around and trips Suki, sending him faceplanting into the dirt.


	3. Together

It’s in a moment when Suki’s body moves before his brain can catch up.

He grabs Cal’s muzzle and plants a kiss right on the dragon’s mouth, only inches away from his razor sharp teeth.

Cal just sort of stands there in shock. Then, as Suki watches, his eyes start changing color - from yellow to blue. His slit pupils round until they seem soft and almost human-like.

The blue of his iris is dazzling, cerulean and azure and icy all at once, and Suki has to tear his gaze away forcefully. He could get lost in those eyes, even if they bigger than his hands.

“You-wha-” Cal blinks. “You kissed me. You just kissed a dragon. Suki, you’re the craziest man I have ever met.”

Suki lets a tiny smile show on his face. “That’s me.”

* * *

“You _can_ fly, right?”

“You think these wings are for show?” Cal stalks out into the courtyard, flicking his tail pridefully.

Suki takes a deep breath. “Yes.”

Cal gives him a murderous glare rivalling that of Byren’s before he snaps them open and beats them, hard. The dragon launches himself into the sky, rapidly growing smaller as he wings higher into the air

The wind he makes nearly knocks Suki down, but he manages to keep standing, hand over his eyes to block out the glare from the early morning sun.

Cal does a few loops in the sky before swooping down, and landing with a dusty thump back into the courtyard, dislodging a couple roses hanging too far over the flower box.

“Come fly with me.”

It’s a request, and Suki gladly agrees. He clambers up on to Cal’s back, lodging himself right on the base of the dragon’s neck between two of the golden spines and in front of Cal’s shoulders.

“Giddyup,” Suki says, playfully slapping Cal’s neck. He gets the feeling Cal’s rolling his eyes.

The dragon takes off again, and the man has to grab tightly to the spines to keep from being thrown off. As he gazes over Cal’s side, he spots his village - a brown speck among a sea of green.

Suki turns to the sky. His view is mostly unobstructed save a couple wispy clouds, and he can see all the way to the mountains in the distance, their snow-capped peaks glittering. He thinks he can even make out a merchant caravan trying to cross the mountain pass. At this time of year, the snow would be in the middle of melting, decreasing how dangerous the attempt to venture across the mountains would be.

They soar through the air, the wind whistling in Suki’s ears. His black hair is whipping wildly in his face, but he doesn’t really mind it. He lets out a whoop, and Cal answers with a roar.

Cal abruptly dives down, fast. Suki clings on for dear life as he plunges towards the ground. The trees are rapidly growing from dots to blobs to detailed masses, but if he’s going to die, he’s going to stare Death in the face before he goes.

That, and he is also a little too terrified to close his eyes, though he’ll never admit it.

Fortunately, Cal has no such plans and banks at the last possible moment, his claws brushing the tips of the tallest trees before he beats his wings, gaining altitude again.

“WHAT THE FUCK!” Suki yells over the wind, trembling when he regains his voice.

Cal merely rumbles, laughing at Suki.

Suki makes a face. What an asshole.

Cal makes a few more circles over the valley below before he turns and starts winging back to the castle. They arrive back without any more incidents and Suki hops off Cal, but immediately sinks ungracefully down to his bottom due to his legs being so shaky.

It’s just his luck that Akemi and Byren are out to greet Cal coming back from his flight - they laugh themselves silly at the sight of Suki trying to stand up and miserably failing.

He finally manages to get up with the help of the fire monster, the flames parting around his hand to reveal blackened, hard skin that feels more like rock than flesh. Suki has to keep leaning on Akemi, using him as a crutch until his legs feel less like jelly and he’s able to stand by himself.

Cal excuses himself to have some private time and the other three head into the castle together.

* * *

Cleaning isn’t the most fun or exciting thing to do, but it does give Suki a chance to unwind and calm down, focusing on clearing the half-inch thick layers of dust off wardrobes, silken sheets and artifacts.

Plus, Suki’s always been one for organization and tidiness.

Byren, though, at one point, flops down on a bed and sends dust billowing into the air, making all three cough and retreat from the room until it settles.

Byren is no longer allowed to jump on soft, dusty things afterwards.

A couple hours passed and they’ve managed to clear out about half of the second floor’s rooms, including one that looks as though it housed an aviary at one point and another filled with antique paintings.

Suki especially likes one of the rooms that’s filled with mirrors. He doesn’t quite understand why there would be a room like that, but the strange feeling of peace and serenity it gives him is soothing.

He and Byren make their way down to the kitchens while Akemi wanders off. After all, a fire monster wouldn’t have any need to eat.

When they reach the kitchens, Byren suggests he make something for Cal. Suki agrees, but soon realizes that he has no idea what the dragon likes to eat.

He rifles through the large larders and discovers a particularly large one that’s cooled by some sort of water system. Inside are all sorts of perishable foods, and a few leftovers which Suki takes a sniff of and then immediately discards because they must have been a couple years old.

The uneaten foods, however, do catch his attention. There aren’t any meats, obviously, but the vegetables and fruits seem to be in perfect condition.

Suki thinks back to the forests surrounding the mountain - they were well-stocked with all sorts of prey animals like woodland deer and rabbits. It’s not like he hasn’t hunted before.

But those woods were likely to be occupied by village hunters as well. Suki would know, he’d been part of the group that made regular trips.

“Byren, where’s the armory?” Suki says to the cat by his feet.

“It’s by the stables, follow me.”

She gets to her paws and pads out of the kitchen, into a long hallway. Byren finds a back exit and leads him around to a large, empty structure that Suki assumes are the stables. Besides it is a smaller building. Both look to be in good condition.

The feline paws at the door of the smaller building, and Suki opens it. Inside are dozens upon dozens of weapons. Racks, shelves and hooks hold different swords, spears and knives. Suki passes over those without a glance, then stops before a wall of unstrung bows.

Each looks painstakingly handmade, carved out of dark, polished wood. Suki takes a recurve bow and fingers the smooth curves.

He picks a bowstring from the coils on a shelf and efficiently strings the bow, forcing the two ends together to slip the loops over both.

With the bow strung, Suki picks a quiver from the many leaning against the wall under the bows. A quick glance in them tells him each is filled with twenty four, and he adds two to his own. Just in case.

“Suki, where are you going?” Byren asks, orange-amber eyes glowing in the dim light.

“To hunt,” is the prompt answer.

“Can I come?”

“Why not.”

Byren tails him as he takes the quiver and bow along with a sheathed dagger, heading back inside to grab a pack. Suki fills it with coils of rope, food, matches and candles.

He doesn’t plan to stay away from the castle for long, but he doesn’t know if he’ll run into trouble during his hunt.

Suki also takes a thin jacket, the collar lined with rabbit fur, from his wardrobe as well. Surely it wouldn’t be missed amongst the numerous unused clothing in the castle.

He sets out with Byren at his heels, slowly making the perilous climb back down the mountain. It takes him an hour, and by this time, the sun’s past its highest peak in the sky and is starting to drift downwards.

Suki has to hurry, or he risks making Cal panic by being missing.

Luckily, Byren quickly picks up the fresh scent of a deer and the two track it to the edge of a stream. Suki slides an arrow silently along the bow with practiced ease, pulling back. He bites back a groan when his muscles protest.

Suki may be a little rusty with a bow, but his skills haven’t completely degraded. The almost silent twang of the bowstring causes the buck to look around for half a second before the arrow sinks deep into its back leg.

It tries to jump away but the injured leg buckles under it and it awkwardly tries to escape on three legs. Suki is already sliding a second arrow into place, though, bringing the bow up to his face.

He pulls the drawstring back, closing an eye to make sure his aim is spot on. He’s so concentrated on the kill that he doesn’t hear the footsteps around him.

Byren’s yowled warning comes too late, and just as he releases the bowstring, something slices into his side.

As Suki turns, a blunt, hard object hits the side of his head and he goes down like a sunken ship.

He staggers a few steps sideways before collapsing, already unconscious.

* * *

Suki wakes up to a dim cell, lit only by the flickering torches outside. He can’t hear much more than the steady drip of water somewhere outside the cell.

The bruise on his head suddenly makes itself known by causing his head to throb, and he winces, bringing up his hand to gingerly feel the bump. The clink of chains causes him to pause, though.

There are manacles locked around his wrists. Each is connected by a thick chain to a ring bolted to the ground, and they don’t give him very much slack.

He looks around, but he’s alone in the cell. So Byren hadn’t been caught.

Suki groans, resting his head in his hands. Just his luck.

His head is pounding, he feels like he got run over by a horse five times, and his clothes are torn like Cal tried to strip him.

Oh, and the nice jacket he “borrowed” is also gone. That irritates Suki - he liked that jacket. Outside the cell, though, he can see a table with his pack and his bow on it, though they're too far to reach.

He tries to stand, and finds out that there’s just enough chain that he can walk a few steps away from the rings that the chains are attached to.

Suki frowns, but then feels around in his pockets until he happens upon one of the scales that he took from Cal. Somehow the guards hadn't bothered removing the scales, and Suki silently thanks whatever deity is watching over him.

The scale is cracked, with two sharp edges protruding from the main scale. They’re just long and thin enough that he can probably slot it into the lock on the shackles and try to pick it. He turns the scale in his hands, mind racing.

Suki puts the scale down and positions his foot on it, slowly applying pressure. The already weakened scale snaps into four pieces with a loud cracking sound, and Suki triumphantly picks up the longest shard. Dragon scales are extremely tough, so the man’s sure the long, thin tip won’t break and simply jam the lock.

He’s just managed to get the shackle off his left wrist when the ground shakes.

“What the heck…?” he mutters to himself. “Was that an earthquake?”

The other possibility… well, Suki's never heard of a fairytale where the knight in shining armor is the dragon itself, and that it saves its target from humans instead of returning its captive to humans. But then again he’s never been one for conventional stories.

He's just about to release his right wrist from its shackle when the dim cell is suddenly flooded with light. The sudden brightness makes Suki’s head spin and he shuts his eyes, groaning.

“Suki!” Cal growls, concern underlying his aggression. The dragon claws the cell apart a little more.

Suki waves the dragon off. “I’m fine.” He slips the remaining shackle off his wrist. In the distance, he can hear yelling. Angry guardsmen, probably.

Cal tears apart more of the ceiling. “Need help?”

”Yes, please. I’d like my stuff back, if that’s alright.”

The dragon reaches over, makes a hole in the corridor and plucks Suki’s pack and weapons off the table. “Is that it?”

A couple arrows bounce off the dragon’s tough hide and Cal turns and roars in annoyance, sweeping his tail violently. Shouts and screams can be heard from the broken ceiling as people scatter, either by getting whacked or out of fear.

“C’mon, Suki.”

“Give me a second.” Suki staggers over to the wall and Cal, losing his patience, grabs the man around the waist with his free paw and lifts him out of the ruined cell, depositing the pack and weapons on Suki.

Fires are raging around the prison and Suki spots a couple bodies strewn across the ground. There are also tons of broken weapons scattered around the place, but no people. At this point, no one wants to stay around the dragon when it’s still in a rage.

Red lights up between Cal’s chest scales, spidering up his neck like glass fractures. The lines coalesce around his mouth and then he opens his jaws wide, unleashing a stream of bright red flames that incinerate Suki’s (former) cell and the cells around it. Cal roars again, slamming his paw down for emphasis, then launches himself into the sky.

As Cal flaps towards the castle, he’s silent. Suki glances up and realizes his bright blue eyes are brimming with emotion. There are a couple he can’t identify, but he can see anger, desperation and melancholy.

Suki wonders.

* * *

Cal curls his enormous form around Suki’s and the warmth of his scales seeps into Suki’s body, making him relaxed and sleepy.

Thoughts swirl around his mind, and the prison, the fire jumps out at him. His mouth is moving before he can even process what he’s saying.

“Cal?”

“Hrm?”

“Why did you burn down the village?”

“They took you away from me,” Cal snarls, suddenly aggressive. There’s a jagged, rough edge to his voice Suki hasn’t heard. It’s raw, emotional, like the rough scraping of scales the wrong way.

Suki feels fear for the first time in a long time, his muscles tensing in preparation to escape. Fear that Cal might really hurt him, might tear into him with sharp claws and razor teeth. It’s nowhere near as close to the kind he felt when he first saw Cal, but his mind thinks he might be in danger, in the lair of an apex predator.

Cal groans, slapping a paw over his snout. “I… I don’t know why I lashed out like that. I’m sorry, Suki. But I just can’t let you fade away like the others.”

Suki glances up, and realizes that Cal’s round pupils have become slit. He has a nagging suspicion in the back of his mind...

“Hey, Cal. We should go see your brother.”

“Why?”

“I’ve just got a feeling…”

Cal heaves himself to his feet while Suki climbs on to the dragon’s back. He pads out of the room and heads down the hall towards the two ornately carved doors, pushing them open.

Suki’s gaze is immediately drawn to the blue shards on the ground, surrounding the stone pedestal. He glances up, and realizes the crystal ball in Kirito’s hand is no longer there. Instead in its place, there’s an enormous hourglass filled with white sand. The sand is still mostly in the upper half, and the neck is incredibly thin, but Suki can see the grains slowly trickling down into the bottom half.

“There _is_ a time limit,” Cal whispers, clearly having seen the hourglass. He trembles.

“It must have appeared after you torched the village,” Suki mutters. “This isn’t good, I see more writing on the pedestal.”

Suki slips down and crouches to read the new carvings.

_Perhaps you need another warning to say: Twenty days to find a lover, do not delay. When time’s all up, the human inside will end, and a feral dragon all that is left to defend._

Suki frowns. “You’ve got a little less than three weeks to get someone to love you. Apparently if you don’t you’ll never get to be human and you’ll go feral.”

Cal sighs. “The witch sure wants me to learn my lesson.”

He turns, tail softly scraping against the ice of the ground. “Did you care about that village?”

“Not in the slightest,” Suki snorts. “But this witch you speak of probably wasn’t a fan of you razing a village.”

Cal casts a mournful gaze at his petrified brother. “Suki… I don’t know what to do.”

“Neither do I,” Suki admits. “Neither do I.”


	4. Hana

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cal's anger management issues dug him into a deeper hole and Suki has to pull him out. No big deal.

“Have you ever visited a witch?” Cal asks Suki one morning.

“No?” Suki stares at Cal. “What do you think I am, an adventurer in search of the elixir of life?”

Cal huffs, and smoke curls from his parted jaws. “I’m going to ask her for help.”

Suki frowns. “If she’s the one that cursed you, chances are she won’t give you any hints.”

“It’s worth a try,” Cal argues.

Suki shrugs. “Fine, but I’m not coming.”

“That’s alright.”

Cal leaves that afternoon.

* * *

The dragon snorts, spiralling through the clouds towards the hidden caves where the witch’s home is. They’re disguised with complex spells but Cal’s eyes pick out a spot that doesn’t look quite right - shadows falling where they shouldn’t, with a faint shimmer in the air.

He flaps towards the cliff face at full speed, and just as he’s about to smash into the side, the cliffside suddenly opens up and the illusion falls away, revealing a huge entrance yawning before him. He shoots inside, folding his wings against his body and crashing to a stop inside the cave.

His claws scratch shallow gouges across the crystal of the cavern floor when he digs them in to help him stop.

Then, as Cal looks around, he’s struck by the beauty of the cave.

Every wall, pillar, stalagmite and stalactite is made of shining diamond. It catches the red light of his fire and reflects it like a million mirrors until the entire cavern is winking with red, orange and gold. It’s strangely peaceful inside - Cal can’t even hear the wind whistling past the entrance outside. He’s been to the cave several times, yet its beauty never fails to amaze him.

“Callum,” says a sharp voice, and Cal whips around, his calm shattered. The witch stands off to the side, holding an intricate metal staff. Her white cloak swirls around her ankles as she takes a few steps forward.

“What are you doing here?”

Cal bares his teeth. “I want help with your curse. Even better if you could just lift it.”

Hana laughs. “Dear, I couldn’t get rid of the spell even if I wanted to. It’ll stay on you until you break it.”

The dragon’s blue eyes narrow. “You mean you can’t even remove it, even when you’re the caster?”

“No. Have you found a suitable princess yet?”

Cal rakes the ground with his forepaws. “I dislike princesses, and besides, you didn’t state that the person had to be royalty.”

“No, of course not. But the key to the lock of the spell is already very close to you. You just need to find it.” Hana points her staff at him. “I didn’t like that little show you put on, burning down the village just like that. So like your father when he conquered lands… he eradicated everything in his path and punished even those who followed him. So now you have twenty days to make a boyfriend!”

The witch smiles jaggedly. “And if your time runs out… well, poor Akatsuki will have to deal with a dragon that’s not had a taste of human flesh quite yet, and will be hungry for any warm meat that's close by.”

Cal lashes his tail. “Leave him out of this! You’ve already taken my brother and my friends, what else do you want to tear out of my life!?”

Hana laughs darkly. “No, my dear. It was you that brought this upon yourself. You take after your father, like I said, but that must change. And what better way to do it than to turn you into the very creature that killed your father?”

Cal howls in rage, blasting fire at the witch, who merely spins her staff and dissolves into doves that disperse into the cave’s depths, leaving Cal alone in the cave, simmering with anger and confusion.

* * *

Suki doesn’t know how long it should take for Cal to visit some witch’s cave, but he’s pretty sure it shouldn’t take a week and a half. He’s been gauging the time left by the hourglass, which he’d managed to remove from Kirito’s cold stone grasp. The sand somehow still falls from one bulb into the other bulb exactly how it’s been doing the past twelve days even though he’s shaken it, turned it upside down and tried to break it.

The hourglass, in short, is invincible.

But Cal isn’t, and Suki’s starting to get worried. He has no idea why he’s so concerned about Cal, but he’s slowly gotten used to being around the dragon and feels comfortable when Cal’s around. Where he used to feel apprehension at coming face-to-face with Cal, he now thinks it’s strange when he doesn’t.

Cal isn’t a dragon, he’s a human trapped in a dragon’s body, and maybe the reason he’s worried is because a part of Suki is prodding at the human within, shedding all the physical layers of scales and claws and teeth to reach the soul inside, lonely and desperate.

Or maybe his amiable friendship with the dragon had become something else… 

It’s not entirely unlikely. Suki has never been in an intimate relationship with anyone. Adding on to the fact that Cal, Byren and Akemi are basically the only living beings he interacts with on a daily basis, it would make sense he’d attached himself to Cal and let his feelings blossom into something completely different.

Suki leaves the library and nearly smacks into a tall woman dressed almost entirely in white. She’s wearing a plain, long-sleeved shirt and knee-length pants, both of which have blue runes scrawled onto the edges of the sleeves and stitched into the hemming. Her cloak is pure white, layered with snowy feathers -white, with stormy grey-blue tips. The woman also has a long, metal staff in her hands, intricate and twisted. Her steel-grey hair falls in graceful waves over her shoulders, the tips steel-blue.

“Who the fuck are you?” Suki manges to get out, backtracking a couple steps and shaking off his shock.

“You can call me Hana,” says the woman easily in a sing-song voice. “And you must be Akatsuki.”

“How do you know my name?” Suki demands.

“With magic, obviously,” Hana says, waving her free hand dismissively. “I hear you’re getting close with a dragon.”

“Cal? He’s okay, I guess…?”

Hana’s expression turns from ditzy to serious in an instant. “Your dragon is dying, Suki. He’s been shot down by dragon hunters, and he crashed in a forest not too far from here. In fact, it’s a seven day trip from the castle to the forest, if you don’t stop and take a break too frequently.”

“Seven days?” Suki splutters. “That’s not close at all!” But Hana continues on as though she hadn’t been interrupted.

“I can make you a map and give you a little help on your journey, but I cannot do anything more. That would be violating the spell’s conditions.”

“What spell… wait, you mean on Cal?”

“Precisely. The rules state he must find a lover by himself, but I tend to like loopholes. Which means I can provide you with a few items that help you along on your trip, but not directly bring you to him.”

Suki groans. “Stupid magic… anyway, I guess I have to go. Where’s Cal, then?”

Hana smiles lazily, her demeanor becoming relaxed again. She holds up a rolled-up sheet of parchment.

“Why don’t you open it up and find out?”

Suki opens up the parchment to find bold black inked on it, denoting a path from the castle to thick woods off to the west of the castle, with a tiny black dragon at the end of the path. He looks back up to thank the witch, but discovers she’s disappeared, leaving behind a single white feather and a small blue crystal pendant, strung on a silken cord. Suki cautiously takes it and slips it over his head.

He blinks, but nothing happens. The man shrugs, tucking the pendant into his shirt, and sets out to pack for the trip.

* * *

Byren meets him at the gate.

“Where you going now, Suki?” the feline asks, easily squeezing through the bars of the gate.

“Rescuing Cal,” grumbles Suki. “He got shot down and I’m going to make sure he doesn’t die.”

The cat looks up at him. “I can help you get there faster,” she offers.

Suki looks back dubiously.

Byren suddenly swells in size, arching her back and hissing. Within mere seconds she’s a horse-sized panther, ebony fur shimmering in the sunlight.

“How…?”

“The witch. Need I say more?”

“No, let’s just hurry and get to Cal.”


	5. Final

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cal makes a boyfriend on the fly.

Suki leans down into Byren’s back, clutching the map tightly. The hourglass dangles from the panther’s mouth as she lopes through the forest. The sun is starting to dip below the mountains to the west, casting long, purple shadows across the two. Everything else is lit up with dying orange-red light.

“Suki! You don’t have much time!” the cat calls, paws slapping against the dead leaves of the forest floor.

“I know… we’re almost there. We just have to reach Cal before the hunters do, or he dies. Well, I mean if the hunters find him he’ll die anyway, but-”

“Suki!” Byren snaps. “Not the time!”

Suki sighs. “Fine. According to the map Cal’s just up ahead…”

Byren gives a sudden screech and Suki gets flung into the air, crashing on to the ground in a tangle of limbs and pain. As he rolls to his feet, he realizes there are three arrows sticking from Byren’s flank, embedded deep in her flesh.

The feline roars and struggles to her paws, and another arrow plunges into her neck, spraying red into the air.

“Suki-” Byren chokes out. “Go!” She turns and yowls another challenge, only to be met with an arrow to the shoulder. Suki staggers back in shock, then turns and sprints in the direction the map is indicating.

Behind him, he hears Byren roar again. There’s the familiar swish-thunk of an arrow and something crashes heavily to the ground.

The man risks a glance behind him to see a motionless black lump on the ground, arrow shafts protruding from all over the still form.

Suki turns back to the map, running for dear life. His heart is pounding, blood rushing in his ears, and he presses on despite his lungs burning as he tries to suck in air.

An arrow flashes by, making him stumble, but he quickly regains his footing, his breath coming out in harsh, short pants as he gets closer to the wounded dragon.

The unseen hunters are probably gaining on him, but Suki finally bursts out of the thick trees into a wide clearing, ringed by broken trees. On the far side, lying at the end of a shallow trench is a large form covered in dull red and gold scales. The setting sun reflects off of Cal’s body, making his tail and wings sparkle.

“Cal!” Suki shouts, making a beeline for the fallen dragon.

An arrow sinks deep into the ground in front of him, sending Suki skidding to a halt.

“Stop right there,” calls a deep male voice. “You cannot go near the dragon. It’s dangerous.”

Cal flops pathetically, wings twitching.

“I think I’d know that, thank you very much,” Suki snaps. “It’s not like I’m running towards the dragon without realizing the building-sized reptile with fire, teeth, claws and wings couldn’t easily kill me in mere seconds.”

The hunters drop down to land in front of Suki. There are three of them, each with longbows strapped to their backs and mysterious black cloaks.

If their motive was to seem mystical and enigmatic, Suki thinks they’re not doing a very good job of it.

“Look,” says one of the hunters in a higher-pitched voice. “You should go back to where you came from. This dragon is our kill.”

“If he’s your kill, then why isn’t he dead yet?”

The three pause, confused, and that’s all Suki needs before he explodes forward, slamming his fist into the face of the tallest hunter. The figure goes down with a grunt of pain and the other two whip out their weapons.

Suki takes a deep breath, unsheathing his own daggers. It’s two highly trained men against one guy who’s barely had any formal training in bladework, and Suki isn’t so confident that he’ll win.

Something sears against his chest as the two remaining hunters circle him predatorily, and Suki clutches his chest, his fingers finding the crystal pendant the witch, Hana, had given him. He pulls it out of his shirt and realizes the pendant is glowing fiercely.

“Alright, witch, you’d better be helping me out here,” he mutters to himself and attacks.

When his blade clangs against the hunter’s, a flash of blue travels down the steel of his dagger and explodes against his opponent’s, sending the cloaked hunter flying backwards. Suki turns just in time to catch the strike from the other hunter, and the same thing happens, the blue energy slithering down Suki’s blade and creating a flashbang that dazzles the other hunter long enough so that Suki can kick him viciously in the head.

“And stay down,” the man hisses before he hears Cal moan in pain, the agonized sound making Suki freeze.

Suki is by Cal’s side in an instant, stroking a hand against Cal’s feverish cheek. He examines the dragon’s body and finds a long tear in one of Cal’s beautiful wings, slashing up the delicate membrane stretched between the spines and rendering it impossible to be used for flight. Besides the torn wing, scratches litter the dragon’s body where scales were roughly torn off, and there’s a cut across Cal’s muzzle, probably from a scrape against some sort of rock or tree when he crashed.

“Cal, I’m sorry. I should have gone with you,” Suki murmurs, running a hand along the crest over Cal’s eye. The dragon blinks at him, eyes hazy.

“S’okay,” Cal rumbles. “My fault for being cursed.”

Suki pats the red-scaled neck and takes a deep breath, well aware of the seconds ticking by. “You know, I asked myself many times on the way here, why I’d come out to save a big, scary dragon.

“I just didn’t know why I’d come to rescue you. I don’t think I would have gone through all this,” Suki indicates the fallen hunters, “for anyone else. But I did it for you. Which looks really stupid because humans don’t look like they can do shit compared to dragons.”

Cal wheezes with laughter.

“But I’m here now, and Cal. I need to say this before I start getting all cheesy and teary-eyed like this is some dumb trashy romance novel. I genuinely love you. You’re a light in my shitty life that I’m glad I met when I did, even though you were a douche and threatened to eat me during our first meeting and I almost pissed myself.”

“I threatened to kill you,” Cal interrupts. “Not necessarily make you into dinner.”

“Shut up, I’m trying to be emotional. The point is, you don’t have to go chasing for another lover, because I’m right here.”

“Great, because I love you too. Now can this curse please be broken?” Cal coughs out a sputtering flame.

As soon as the words leave his mouth, Hana appears in a swirl of white. The witch grins.

“Oh, good job,” she says nonchalantly. “The spell is broken, Cal finds true love, blah blah blah. But Suki...”

“Huh?”

“Did you bring spare clothing?”

“Yeah?” Suki scratches his head. “Why?”

“When Cal transforms back he’s going to be buck naked.”

Dragon and human stare at her. “What?!” Cal finally splutters, outraged.

The witch shrugs.

A clicking sound makes Suki look back at Cal, whose wings are suddenly obscuring him from view, wrapped around his fallen form.

Cal’s wings then flare back, folding until they’re much smaller and pressing into his spine, melding with his body and leaving a human where a dragon once lay.

He still has scales, though they’re much smaller than before and fade in and out of view along his shoulders, neck and legs and wind down his arms. Cal’s skin is lightly tanned, contrasting with the red of the scales along his body.

The now-human has fluffy brown hair that spikes up at the back, dyed red at the ends, and Suki feels a strong urge to pet it.

Cal blinks up at them with round blue eyes. “Am I really not a dragon anymore?” He brings a hand up to his face, wiggling his fingers.

Hana yawns and waves a dismissive hand, turning away. The tips of the feathers on the edge of her cloak brush against her ankles as she moves. "I suppose, too bad I don't even know what happens after this spell is broken, but it’s time for me to be going. Suki, may I have my necklace back?”

Suki slips the pendant over his head and drops it into the witch’s waiting palm.

“Thank you. Now go put something on before those hunters wake up.” With those parting words, Hana disappears in a blast of icy wind.

“Wait, I’m naked?” Cal glances down at himself.

Suki smacks him in the face with a projectile set of clothes.

* * *

Akemi stops in the middle of the hallway as a jolt of energy goes through him. He pitches forward violently, falling to his hands and knees and coughing.

He inhales and suddenly his body is on fire, pain surging through his limbs. Akemi bites back a scream, curling his hands into fists as he struggles to stay in control.

His skin is peeling away - it hurtsithurtsithurts - he’s fire - he’s _burning and his body is crumbling to ash-_

And then it’s over, and Akemi looks down at his arms to find smooth, unmarked skin and trembling fingers.

He turns his hand over and blinks, his mind not quite processing that he’s no longer a fire monster.

Akemi stands shakily, then realizes he’s wearing absolutely nothing.

There was never a faster person seen in the castle.

* * *

When the three finally make it back to the mountain, the two statues at the gate are missing - namely the cloaked man and the mace-wielding warrior. Byren doesn’t seem surprised at the empty pedestals, though, and the dark-haired girl simply pushes open the gate.

The courtyard is alive with activity: the flowers have all bloomed and there are a couple people chatting near the gladiolas. Four finches hop along the ground, pecking at the dirt and squabbling with each other while butterflies and bees glide lazily from flower to flower.

Byren whoops and charges straight at the group of people, then tackles one of them. Suki and Cal both wince when they crash to the ground, the boy in Byren’s arms looking mildly uncomfortable.

His expression changes when he realizes who’s pinning him down, though, changing into surprise and then pure, unrestrained joy when he sees the spiky-haired girl.

“Byren, where were you?” Akemi yells. “Argh, get off, you’re way too heavy as a human!”

Cal snickers, crossing his arms. “They’re pretty cute together, hm?”

Suki shrugs. “I’d prefer you and me and a private room.”

The former dragon turns, eyes half-lidded. “That can be arranged.”

Violet eyes narrow and Suki turns to him, planting a firm hand on Cal’s chest. “Not so fast. I’m taking a quick bath, I smell like cat and the woods.”

Byren’s head whips around almost instantly. “Hey! I didn’t smell _that_ bad! No, wait, actually I wasn’t stinky at all!”

“Never said you were.”

“You implied- oh, whatever. Let’s get inside,” Cal says, laughing.

* * *

As soon as the door opens, Cal’s face changes. Shock, then relief flash across his face as he sprints across the wide entrance hall to wrap a younger boy with soft blonde hair in a tight hug.

“Ca- ack, bro! Get off!” Kirito paws at his older sibling, hand scrabbling uselessly against Cal’s sides.

“Kirito… I missed you.” Cal’s voice is muffled.

Kirito sort of just stands there awkwardly, his thin arms looped loosely around Cal’s waist. “Help, I’m being assaulted,” he calls lamely.

Suki just sighs and helps pry Cal off of Kirito.

Once the brothers are untangled, Cal gives Kirito a quick look-over, then determines that yes, Kirito is perfectly healthy, and no, he doesn’t show any sign of turning back into a statue anytime soon.

“Cal, what happened while I was asleep?” the young blonde asks, running a hand through his messy hair. “I can only remember getting really stiff and sore and being really sleepy. It’s like I was sleeping but at the same time I’m awake. It was weird, bro.”

“Long story short, you got turned into a statue, I got turned into a dragon, then I got Suki to fall in love with me. Basically it.”

Suki has the smallest but smuggest smile that Cal has ever seen on his face. “Actually, I got Cal to love me first. But he doesn’t want to admit that.”

Cal blushes. “What? No, I think you’re confused,” he says in a voice half an octave too high.

Kirito heaves a huge sigh. “Bro, why are you so predictable? You fall for every hot guy that you see.”

“Well yeah, but that’s _lust_ and it’s temporary. Also, they aren’t as hot as Suki, and I’m not ditching him for anyone else.”

Suki and Kirito share a look.

Cal’s quick to notice. “What? I’m not going to go off with a sexy man when I have one of my own. Besides, all of them kind of pissed themselves and ran as soon as they saw me as a dragon, which makes them fail the Cal test.”

He leans close to Suki. "Kirito is also a huge liar.”

Kirito splutters. “Excuse me?”

“It’s like that one time you told me Hana the witch was harmless,” Cal said, crossing his arms.

Suki frowns. “How...?”

Kirito blinks innocently.

“...yeah,” mumbles Suki. “I’m just gonna, you know. Go take my bath.”

He ducks under Cal’s attempt to grab at him and runs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cheesy, rushed ending? haha yeah my endings are shitty i know


	6. Extra: Behind the Doors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spell? Broken.  
> Brother? Un-petrified.  
> Statues? Revived.  
> Hotel? Trivago.

Cal closes the door behind them. He’s on Suki in seconds, hands fumbling with the buttons on Suki’s shirt.

“Impatient much?” the violet-eyed man chuckles, helping Cal pull the shirt off. “I didn’t know you’d get this needy. If I did, I would have stayed in the baths longer.”

“Tease,” Cal groans, hands wandering over Suki’s chest. “Now I feel like just pinning you against the wall and taking you right there.”

“Then do it.” Suki’s tone has an underlying challenge to it, and he hooks his thumbs under the waistband of his pants and pulls down ever so slowly, letting bare skin underneath peek out inch by inch.

Cal is not so fond of the torturously slow pace Suki is taking, but instead discards his own top to the side and snaps open the clasp of his trousers.

“I’m going to make you scream my name later for the stunts you’re pulling right now,” he murmurs, resting his hands on Suki’s shoulders.

Suki’s lips curve into a wicked grin as he’s shoved back against the wall. “I’m looking forward to it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cal is a horny asshole


End file.
